


Eye of the Hurricane

by i_write_shit_pls_read_it



Category: The Blacklist (US TV)
Genre: Aram Cooper Park and Reddington all get mentions, Canon Compliant, F/M, Fluff, I literally wrote this in an hour leave me alone, but they're there, mostly - Freeform, then canon divergent, they just don't really have meaning, you can blame @heresyourhatwhatsyourhurry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23091421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_write_shit_pls_read_it/pseuds/i_write_shit_pls_read_it
Summary: I was planning to go to bed at a reasonable hour tonight but then @heresyourhatwhatsyourhurry (on tumblr) had to go and call my stories fabulous and so now you get this hot mess.
Relationships: Elizabeth Keen/Donald Ressler
Comments: 3
Kudos: 100





	Eye of the Hurricane

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the spoiler article for 7x11/12 saying Liz and Ressler will grab a quiet moment amongst the hectic office going ons; this is my shortest and undoubtedly worst fic to date so go easy on me.

_Basorexia  
noun. The sudden urge to kiss someone _

1x20, The Kingmaker

Liz stares at the phone, feeling irrationally guilty. Maybe if Reddington had _told_ them he needed to talk to the Kingmaker they could’ve brought him in alive, but that is unlikely considering he was about to choke her to death when Ressler killed him.

Speaking of the devil Ressler walks in and starts going through drawers. “Where’s the stapler?”

“Aram took it,” she responds automatically.

Grumbling about thieving technical analysts, Ressler makes to leave but she calls after him. “Hey, Ressler.”

He turns to her, neutral and then confused as she says nothing else. “What is it?”

Liz racks her brain for something that won’t equate to ‘thanks for saving my life’ when he was just doing his job. All she can come up with is, “Get some paperclips while you’re at it.”

He says, “I’m not your errand boy Keen,” and leaves.

***

2x4, Dr. Linus Creel

Liz is heading over to Cooper and Ressler is on his way out towards the elevators, but he snags her by the elbow and tugs her into an alcove.

As soon as they reach their destination he releases her. “How are you holding up Keen?”

Liz knows exactly what he’s talking about and is not planning on acknowledging it until she has access to her wine cabinet. “I’m fine.”

“Really?” he said dryly. “Glad to hear a mad scientist holding a gun to your head left no lasting impression. Truly, you have an impenetrable psyche.”

She purses her lips, but says nothing else before turning and walking away.

***

2x5, The Front

She finishes her case report up with a sigh, and begins working out the kinks in her back. Ressler wrapped up a few minutes ago, and is packing his things. He looks up at her. “I don’t suppose you were planning on seeing a doctor?”

Liz frowned. “A doctor?”

“Yeah, maybe to see if that weaponized pneumonic plague you caught has any lasting side effects.” His tone is so condescending she flashes back to her high school biology teacher.

“Now that you mention it, I was actually planning to put myself under quarantine for the next ninety-six hours and consume nothing but homemade bread and distilled water.”

Ressler rolls his eyes and leaves without another word.

***

2x8, The Decembrist

Liz is about to walk past Ressler, nose in a file but he stops her. She looks up at him, managing to wear an expression that is both defensive and innocent at the same time. “What?”

A thousand words rise up to right behind his lips, questions and demands. _How long were you even holding him captive, what the hell were you thinking, do you have any idea how many laws you’ve broken, why didn’t you kill him, why didn’t you tell me?_

“How are we coming on that warrant?”

She can hear his unspoken questions, he knows she can. Damn it but she knows him way too well already. “Judge should be signing it any minute now.”

Rather than ask for answers he’s not sure he wants, Ressler nods and watches her walk away.

***

2x12, The Kenyon Family

Considering all the times Ressler has fussed over her, Liz considers it only fair that she stops by to check on him. “How are you doing?”

Ressler briefly glances up from his paperwork. “Fine.”

Liz ‘tch’s pointedly. “And the fact that you were nearly impaled by a tree branch?”

A grin stretches across his face. “Don’t tell me you’re actually worried about me. I’m touched Keen, truly.”

She throws her hands up. “Forget I asked.”

“I’m going to mark this down on my calendar.”

***

2x19, Leonard Caul

Whenever there’s a storm coming, Ressler always gets goosebumps before the first clap of thunder. He has a similar feeling now.

The task force and Liz are racing towards something and he can’t tell what, has no evidence to go by aside from an enduring uneasy feeling. He digs his fingernails into his palm as he flashes back to the blood on Liz’s hands.

Reddington was shot, Tom is a wild card, the Director of the National Clandestine Service is essentially the chairman of an international Cabal.

His feet are moving before he can register it but Ressler makes it to the office door right as Liz is about to leave, and he blocks her exit.

She frowns at him. “What?”

His eyes flick down to her lips and for a brief instant Ressler thinks about kissing her.

He drops his arm and steps aside. “Nothing.

***

4x15, The Apothecary

“It _can't_ have been Dembe,” Liz repeats.

Ressler does not know Red’s bodyguard nearly as well as Liz seems to, and so he keeps his mouth shut. This is a mistake because she turns to him. “What, do you think he did it?”

“I didn’t say anything,” he protests.

“That’s not a denial.”

Ressler sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “I think we should follow the evidence, and right now the evidence points to Dembe. If it’s not him then we’ll find out who it is, but he’s our best lead.”

Liz’s face is a mosaic of disbelief and righteous fury, with a smattering of betrayal for good measure and it makes his heart do a strange clenching thing. Without another word she stands up and walks out and he aches to call her back but stays silent.

***

4x19, Dr. Bogdan Krilov

Liz stares at her desk, feeling numb. She wants to reexamine every single memory from the past three decades of her life, but knows that even if she could she wouldn’t know what to look for. That’s both the beauty and the horror of memory manipulation, you don’t even know something’s gone missing until it’s too late.

She feels a light pressure on her shoulder, and looks up to see Ressler watching her with concern. “Keen?”

She shakes her head, trying to get rid of her distractions. “Sorry, did you say something?”

He removes his hand and she feels a pang but ignores it as he walks over to his chair. “I was just saying thanks for not letting me murder a National Security Advisor.”

Liz nods absently, thoughts already drifting and Ressler raps his knuckles on the desk. She starts. “What?”

“Come on Keen. Out with it. What’s got you so wrapped up?”

Liz takes a long inhale, not wanting to burden him with her issues when he’s already been through hell today, but then the question pops out. “What do you do when someone you want to trust keeps lying to you?”

Ressler immediately knows who she’s talking about, because his normal answer would be ‘you don’t trust them’, but instead what he says is, “People lie Liz.”

 _Not you,_ she thinks desperately. _Not to me._

All of a sudden Liz very badly wants to kiss him, this one honest man in her life, who is undeniably, unequivocally good.

Just as she is seriously considering it Aram knocks on the door and they both jump. Apparently Cooper wants to talk to Liz and so she walks out, fighting a blush in her cheeks.

***

Between 5x8 and 5x9, Ian Garvey and Ruin

Six months.

For exactly six months now, 182 days, Liz has been in a coma. Not moving, not blinking, the only sign of life the continued beat of her monitor.

Of course the only reason Ressler knows all of this is because Aram is updating him and Samar practically every other hour, and Red occasionally confirms that nothing has changed.

Ressler hasn’t seen her once in those 182 days, though not for lack of trying on his part.

Every day he drives to the hospital, parks outside, and then sits there for an hour. Somehow he can’t bring himself to get out of the car, because he knows if he sees Liz lying in that bed he will break down. He closes his eyes and rests his head on the steering wheel. He pictures her eyes, her perfect blue eyes framed by gently curling lashes, and is seized with a fear so strong it aches they will never open again. His fingers tighten their grip and he wishes he could run them through her hair, he wants to know if it’s as soft as he’s always dreamed. He wants to kiss her, wildly hoping that if he loves her enough he can wake her up through sheer force of will like the prince in Sleeping Beauty.

But life isn’t a fairytale, and him going inside the hospital room to see the truth of her for himself isn’t going to change anything.

Ressler swallows back the urge to break his window and drives away.

The next day he comes back, and the cycle repeats.

***

Post 7x10, Katarina Rostova

“Agent Park.” She looks over her shoulder as Ressler walks over. “Do you have that list of—”

She cuts him off. “—company executives with at least one personal attorney and a family? On the printer.”

Park is always so on top of things it’s almost frightening, and Ressler hopes as she stops feeling the need to prove herself to everyone she calms down. “Thanks, I’ll take it to Keen.”

He almost misses her snicker, the muttered ‘of course you will’. He doesn’t miss it but he does choose to ignore it, having learned long ago via Aram to pick and choose his battles.

Liz is in the office, on a call with Reddington. He holds out the list and she takes it, moving the phone. “Thanks, anything else?”

 _Yeah, I want to kiss you really badly right now._ “No.”

***

There is a ringing in her ears that Liz can’t stop hearing as she takes the elevator down. Ressler and Park had gone to pick up a suspect who’d ended up shooting Ressler twice with a double-barrel shotgun. According to Aram the vest had taken the hit and Ressler was fine but for a large bruise and refusal to take so much as an aspirin, but Liz needed to see it for herself.

Unwilling to wait for the doors to open all the way she ducked under them, trembling as she walked over. The door was already open and so she caught onto the doorway to stop herself from falling over when she saw him, sitting in his chair just like always, like nothing was wrong.

She gave a shaky sort of gulp at the sight, unable to help it. He looked up and his brows knit together with concern. “You all right there Keen? Look like you saw a ghost.”

“I feel like I’m looking at one.” She felt numb with relief. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

He laughed, doing stupidly sexy half-smile thing he did, and walked over. “Watch yourself Keen, I might start to think you actually care.”

He made to move past her but Liz stepped forward to stop him as she shut the door. She placed her hand on the area beneath his left shoulder and traced downwards, feeling him tense when she reached where he’d been hit. Liz stilled her hand and looked up at him. She could see him swallow, was so close that she could’ve counted his eyelashes.

“I do care.”

Cautiously, as though waiting for her to move away, Ressler reached up to cup his hand around her neck, fingers threading through her hair. She tilted her face up to his, a flower seeking the sun, and had half a second to be grateful the blinds on the windows were closed before he leaned down to kiss her.

Liz gasped into his mouth, meting into his touch. She grabbed at his shoulders and held on for dear life as he kissed her, sweet and determined, and when she playfully caught his bottom lip between her teeth he actually groaned. She used her hand on his neck to pull him further into her, fisting her other hand on his shirt when he suddenly broke off with a sharp wince.

Liz immediately recognized her mistake and relaxed her grip. “Sorry,” she muttered.

But he shook his head. “Don’t be.”

He leaned in to kiss her again and Liz felt the need to brace herself lest her knees give out, but before he could there was a knock at the door and they both froze.

Aram was there to announce that Reddington had arrived and needed to speak to the task force.

When he was gone Liz sighed, and pressed a kiss to his cheekbone. “No rest for the wicked.”

As she drew back Ressler caught her chin with his fingers and turned her so he could sneak in one more kiss. “We’re going to pick this up later.” If his tone hadn’t been so desperate it might’ve sounded like a warning.

Liz winked. “Oh hell yes.”


End file.
